New Zealand foreign minister headed to Turkey to 'confront' Erdogan's mosque shooting comments

[Kailash Kumar]

New Zealand foreign minister headed to Turkey to 'confront' Erdogan's mosque shooting comments

MARCH 20, 2019

(Reuters) - New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Turkey to “confront” comments made by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on the killing of at least 50 people at mosques in Christchurch.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday after a lone gunman opened fire at the two mosques during Friday prayers.

Erdogan - who is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted AK Party in March 31 local elections - said Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if New Zealand did not.

The comments came at a campaign rally that included video footage of the shootings which the alleged gunman had broadcast on Facebook.

Ardern said Peters would seek urgent clarification.

“Our deputy prime minister will be confronting those comments in Turkey,” Ardern told reporters in Christchurch. “He is going there to set the record straight, face-to-face.”

Peters had earlier condemned the airing of footage of the shooting, which he said could endanger New Zealander’s aboard.

Despite Peters’ intervention, an extract from Tarrant’s alleged manifesto was flashed up on a screen at Erdogan’s rally again on Tuesday, along with footage of the gunman entering one of the mosques and shooting as he approached the door.

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he summoned Turkey’s ambassador for a meeting, during which he demanded Erdogan’s comments be removed from Turkey’s state broadcaster.

“I will wait to see what the response is from the Turkish government before taking further action, but I can tell you that all options are on the table,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

Morrison said Australia’s ambassador to Turkey will on Wednesday meet with the members of Erdogan’s government.

Morrison said Canberra is also reconsidering its travel advice for Australians planning trips to Turkey.

Relations between Turkey, New Zealand and Australia have generally been good. Thousands of Australians and New Zealanders travel each year to Turkey for war memorial services

Just over a century ago, thousands of soldiers from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) struggled ashore on a narrow beach at Gallipoli during an ill-fated campaign that would claim more than 130,000 lives.

The area has become a site of pilgrimage for visitors who honor their nations’ fallen in graveyards halfway around the world on ANZAC Day every April 25.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...dogans-mosque-shooting-comments-idUSKCN1R10B6

 

[Trango Towers]

I think i salute the way NZ has handled this but turkey si right if they dont get justice then it must be delivered. After all BT has NOT been charged as a terrorist. Would that happen if he was a muslim killing church goes?

 

[bsruzm]

I think i salute the way NZ has handled this but turkey si right if they dont get justice then it must be delivered. After all BT has NOT been charged as a terrorist. Would that happen if he was a muslim killing church goes?

That terrorist especially targeted Turks, us by killing unrelated innocent people.

 

[Hyde]

I think the law is taking its course in most appropriate manner. Erdogan just gave a foolish statement and should not be fueled any further

 

[JF-17ThunderBlock3]

After all that dust to calm , NZ gov has done it carefully.
But will this monster be given 4x4 cell just like US did to Muslims in Guantanamo Bay.

 

[Trango Towers]

I think the law is taking its course in most appropriate manner. Erdogan just gave a foolish statement and should not be fueled any further

He should have just done what needed to be done

 

[bsruzm]

Depicts an Australian soldier on the right, shirtless and wearing a slouch hat and holding a rifle with a bayonet attached, shaking hands with a medieval crusader wearing chainmail and a St George cross tunic from the Third Crusade (1189-92), with the St George cross behind them.
Source: Australian War Memorial, Gallipoli

I doubt that they can counter anything with such mentality.

"This crusade will take a while." that wasn't said by a terrorist but an American president.

 

[beijingwalker]

Erdogan - who is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted AK Party in March 31 local elections - said Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if New Zealand did not.

So Erdogan's going to attack NZ which is thousands of miles away from Turkey, what a great super power, how many countries he wants to punish anyway..

 

[JF-17ThunderBlock3]

I think the law is taking its course in most appropriate manner. Erdogan just gave a foolish statement and should not be fueled any further

Let us wait and see if the conviction will be based on Law defined by Aus & NZ
where they give right to live to every living being hence there is no death penalty.
Pressure on west was necessary to make exception, Erdogan did right.

So Erdogan's going to attack NZ which is thousands of miles away from Turkey, what a great super power, how many countries he wants to punish anyway..

All it takes for any intelligence agency to trigger a plan to execute this criminal.
If Turkish Gov has to execute that , they can get the means to do this
without Raiding NZ. But since the statement has been thrown out in the media
It is just publicity stunt to get more votes in elections.

 

[Mutakalim]

That terrorist especially targeted Turks, us by killing unrelated innocent people.

The christian terrorist killed those people because he thought that we all are same, but you are not ready to accept this fact. Brother, look at us, look at our grief and misery. We Muslims are whipped across the world due to our disunity. We are not even ready to accept our own people, shame! If our mindset remains the same then in my opinion this misery will continue.

 

[bsruzm]

The christian terrorist killed those people because he thought that we all are same, but you are not ready to accept this fact. Brother, look at us, look at our grief and misery. We Muslims are whipped across the world due to our disunity. We are not even ready to accept our own people, shame! If our mindset remains the same then in my opinion this misery will continue.

Doesn't it hurt you when IS terrorism is called Caliphate? Last time, I read it was reported as "US hammers the caliphate.". Such misery, I have never read since Mongol invasion. Don't tell me...

 

[Sheikh Rauf]

Why west is so hesitant to call white terrorist if not christian after all he selected religious place.
this organization sud be banned like Al Qaeda, internet services and sites sud keep an eye on people like them.
his punishment sud be shoot in head and that event sud be live on F*%# book aswell.

 

[patero]

I think i salute the way NZ has handled this but turkey si right if they dont get justice then it must be delivered. After all BT has NOT been charged as a terrorist. Would that happen if he was a muslim killing church goes?

There will be difficulties charging Tarrant as a terrorist, New Zealand's Terrorism Suppression Act was designed for surveillance and prevention of acts of terrorism. That, and the fact that NZ prosecutors have no experience working with the act (this is the first act of terrorism in NZ since, well, ever actually) mean it will be less risky to charge him under the crimes act. In the end, he will be locked up indefinitely. I'm not sure what difference it makes what act he is charged under if the result is the same.

 

[Mutakalim]

Doesn't it hurt you when IS terrorism is called Caliphate? Last time, I read it was reported as "US hammers the caliphate.". Such misery, I have never read since Mongol invasion. Don't tell me...

Definitely, it hurts.

 

[bsruzm]

Definitely, it hurts.

Exactly, they are carefully choosing those names.